Courtesy: Columbia University Athletics/Gene Boyars
Golf - M
Courtesy: Columbia University Athletics
Release: 07/01/2006
From the moment she set foot on the Columbia University campus as an assistant coach, Kari Williams has made an impact on the women’s golf program. Now in her fourth season as the head coach, Williams has developed the squad into Ivy League title contenders year-in and year-out.
Through her first three seasons, her golfers have been named to the All-Ivy League team seven times, including three in both 2007 and 2008. Recent graduate Sara Ovadia ’08CC was the first Columbia golfer in history to earn an Ivy League Individual Championship in 2007. Ovadia recently turned professional in the summer of 2009 and took home a second-place finish in a Cactus Tour event in September.
In 2007, her first with the Lions, Williams guided the women’s team to its first-ever Ivy League Championship and a berth in the NCAA Championships. Only a sophomore at the time, Ovadia took home medalist honors and then-first-year Stevy Loy closed as the runner-up.
Williams came to Columbia rich with experience in the golf world and beyond. The Evanston, Wyo. native played for the University of Hawaii, where she was a two-time team captain, All-Big West with an individual fourth-place finish at the Big West Championships and qualified for the NCAA Regionals as a senior. Williams graduated in 1994 from the Shidler School of Business with a degree in accounting.
Post-graduation, Williams embarked on a professional career that included playing on the Futures, Players West and Kosaido Ladies Asian tours and in LPGA Q-School events.
As an amateur, Williams established herself as the top female high school golfer in Wyoming, winning Wyoming individual state titles in 1988 and 1989. She was also the Utah State Jr. Champion in 1988. While in Hawaii, Williams won the island’s top amateur event, the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational, twice (1993 and 1998) and the Hawaii State Stroke Play Championship in 1995.
Concluding her competitive career in 2002, Williams became a high school teacher at Gilroy (Calif.) High School, where she was also named the head coach of three sports, taking over the girls’ basketball program and the boys’ and girls’ golf teams. Williams coached the basketball team to the final four of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs three consecutive years before coming to Columbia in 2006. Williams is also a member of the USGA, NCGA and NGCA, as well as the Columbia Kayaking Club.
Williams earned a Masters of Sports Management from Columbia in October 2008. She lives in Morningside Heights, close to Columbia’s campus.
Courtesy: Columbia University Athletics/Gene Boyars
